Wasting food . . . instead of my health

Some people are born picky eaters, me I was born a picky drinker.  There is very little that I like to drink.  I love milk, and I love real juice (like apple cider or orange juice not the sugary water they sell that has never seen a fruit).  I don’t drink pop, coffee, tea or alcohol because I simply don’t like the taste.  I’ll drink water occasionally if it’s cold and I’m thirsty. 

This particularity has led to, on occasion, some difficulty.  The first time I ran into problems with liquid consumption (I’d say drinking but that has a slightly different connotation) was when I was 19 and doing my basic training with the military.  I started to wake up in the middle of the night with awful cramps in my legs and feet.  At first I thought it was tiered muscles, but I soon came to the realization that I was dehydrated, almost dangerously so. 

I managed to fix this and, being a nurse, took the lesson to heart.  There is more then one young cadet who can attest to the fact that anyone who showed up to a clinic, staffed by me, dehydrated was going to be educated quickly and thoroughly, and they left knowing that I had better not see them at the clinic for dehydrated a second time. 

What’s this got to do with food waste?  A couple of weeks ago I decided to use up the frozen apple juice that I inherited from my sister when we moved out of the apartment we shared (she was going out of country so didn’t take any of the food stuff).  Three cans of it had been sitting there for months and I decided that there was no point in getting more juice while I still had them.  So I made a pitcher of apple juice with the intention of not making any more juice until it was gone. 

Problem was that when faced with the choice of drinking apple juice or nothing I chose nothing, and I chose it all the time.  Two weeks past and I’d only drunk one or two cups, then I got a wakeup call, literally.  I woke up in the middle of the night with familiar and vicious cramps in my calves. 

I’ve treated people with sever dehydration.  I know how bad it can get and I know how dangerous it can be, a lot more serious then dumping a dollar’s worth of juice down the drain.  Yes, I willfully wasted food this week, but in the big picture it was a small price to pay.